"In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States," the president said in the Rose Garden at the White House. "We are getting out. But we will start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal that's fair. And if we can, that's great. And if we can't, that's fine."

Nevertheless, according to the regulations of the agreement, the earliest date the U.S. (or any country) could exit the historic international initiative would be November 4, 2020. That means there will be plenty of time in the interim to learn not only what the Paris agreement is and what it was intended to do, but also Trump’s historical attitude toward climate change and how it has impacted the United States' foreign and domestic policy.

What is the Paris agreement?

The Paris agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015, at the United Nations climate summit in Paris, France, with the aim of limiting the warming of the planet to “well below 2 degrees Celsius,” while targeting for 1.5 degrees Celsius, by 2100. As part of the pact, the countries committed to lowering their greenhouse gas emissions. The United States set a personal goal for itself — to facilitate a 26–28% reduction of 2005 greenhouse gas emissions levels by 2025. It's a time-sensitive task: A study from Nature Climate Change found that globally, we have to stop emitting greenhouse gases by 2060 in order to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100.

In November 2016, the agreement went into force — it required at least 55 countries accounting for 55% of global emissions to be on board — and to date has been ratified or accepted by 179 parties or countries of the 196 signatories. The only two nations in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) whose leaders refused to sign the agreement are Syria and Nicaragua.

Per Trump's 2017 announcement, the United States is the third country to not be included in the global pact. The U.S. is the largest producer of greenhouse gases to not be associated with the deal, and is the first nation to rescind its commitment to the agreement.

What is the United States’ history of involvement in the Paris agreement?

Former president Barack Obama helped broker the deal, calling it at the time “a turning point for the world.” In the weeks leading up to Trump’s decision to leave the pact, the former president defended the agreement, his major contribution to the fight against climate change, saying the U.S. should not "sit on the sidelines."

"During the course of my presidency, I made climate change a top priority because I believe that of all the challenges that we face, this is the one that will define the contours of this century, more dramatically perhaps than any other," Obama said. "We have been able to bring our emissions down even as we grow our economy. The same is true in many parts of Europe.”

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As Trump announced that the U.S. would leave the agreement on June 1, Obama issued a statement.

Aside from his move to rescind the agreement, what is Trump’s stance on climate change?

Trump’s opinions on climate change embody the ideology loosely described as climate change denial. His decision, therefore, to move toward exiting the Paris agreement is not a complete surprise. In fact, Trump promised to “cancel” the Paris agreement during his campaign. Though, he vowed to keep an “open mind” toward the pact after being elected into office. While he did not back out during his first 100 days as commander in chief, as initially expected, Trump repeatedly delayed his timeline to make a decision, a choice that would reflect the president’s historically antagonisticrelationship with scientific consensus.

How did other world leaders and influential figures react to Trump’s announcement?

Some individual states, including California, New York, and Massachusetts, affirmed their commitment to the climate agreement, and the governors of Washington, California, and New York announced the formation of the "United States Climate Alliance" shortly after Trump's speech.

Ultimately, Trump’s decision to depart from the agreement is largely symbolic on a policy level. His resolve to leave the Paris agreement won’t break the actual pact between the remaining nations. Had he stayed in the accord, Trump's policies could have still wreaked havoc on the environment and the U.S. could still fall short on the Obama-era climate change goals. Since all efforts are voluntary, there is no regulating body to penalize or fine the government for not sticking to its word.

But it certainly changes things up on an environmental level since reaching the global goal will be much harder without American participation because of the U.S.'s climate footprint, according to climate modeling from American nonprofit Climate Interactive. And it's a telling move: Stepping away from the international agreement shows that curbing climate change is not a priority for the Trump administration, and his decision teased a bleak outlook for environmental progress under his presidency.

The silver lining is that the U.S. cannot depart immediately, as the U.N.’s rules only allow a country to initiate a withdrawal three years after the accord goes into force. This means the Trump administration can only formally initiate an exit on November 4, 2019. After that, there is a one-year notice period for the withdrawal to go into effect, so the earliest the United States can truly be free of the Paris agreement is November 4, 2020, which is one day after the 2020 presidential election. But since countries aren't held accountable for living up to their end of the deal, this also means the 2020 time buffer is just a formality: The Trump administration can officially withdraw from the Paris agreement when the time comes, but unofficially retract on all associated efforts and roll out environmentally damaging policy in the meantime.

“While formal withdrawal could not be initiated until November 2019, in effect the United States could announce a plan to withdraw and reduce or cease participation in Paris agreement activity earlier,” a government memo published by HuffPost in early May 2017 reads. “We would not have any Paris Agreement reporting requirements to fulfill in the meantime, as the first reports under the Paris Agreement reporting system are not expected to need to be submitted until at least 2021 or 2022.”

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According to data from the World Resources Institute, the United States was the source of 27% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions between 1850 and 2011, followed by the European Union (25%), China (11%), Russia (8%), and Japan (4%). In 2015, the United States was responsible for a sixth of the world's emissions, releasing 5.1 million kilotons of carbon dioxide.

As for what this means internationally, leaders have made it clear that the world will tackle climate change with or without the United States. The European Union and China have reportedly formed an alliance to combat any measure taken by the U.S. that could undermine the Paris agreement, and other nations have renewed their commitment to battling climate change. And, according to U.N. secretary general António Guterres, the power to make a difference still remains with the people and local governments in America.

"We believe that it will be important for the U.S. not to leave the Paris Agreement," Guterres said in a Q&A session after delivering a speech prior to Trump's decision. "But even if (the) U.S. government decides to leave the Paris Agreement, it's very important for the U.S. societies as a whole — for the cities, the states, the companies, the businesses — to remain engaged with the Paris Agreement."

The U.S. may have backed out of its environmental promise outlined in the Paris agreement, but there's hope yet that lawmakers and citizen activism can make lasting progress at halting climate change.